In The American Spectator, Acton Institute’s Michael Matheson Miller throws his hat into the ring as he launches a tongue-in-cheek candidacy for World Bank president, but also raises serious questions about the institution’s poverty fighting programs. Miller is a research fellow at Acton, where he directs PovertyCure, an initiative that promotes enterprise solutions to poverty. Jeffrey Sachs — are you listening?

Here are some planks from Miller’s campaign platform:

I don’t believe that foreign aid is the solution — or even a solution. It has subsidized corruption and delayed the development of local business. In short, it is generally part of the problem. And I’m not alone in thinking so. There are growing numbers of Africans, Latin Americans, and Asians who are saying no to aid and instead want the chance to have free and fair competition.

I also don’t believe the developing world is a lab for Western scientists and technocrats to test out their various utopian theories on others. When I am president of the World Bank, none of these people would be given support to experiment with the lives of others.

In this connection, I should mention that I don’t believe in a “scientific” solution to poverty. Nor do I believe that I or anyone else can end poverty “forever.” There will always be some poverty because there will always be human weakness, human error. There will always be a need for human love and caring.

That’s true only because we keep changing the base line. If we measured poverty today by the same standard as used in say 1900, then we have eliminated poverty completely in the West. Or use the same standard that the UN uses for non-Western nations – $2/day. By either objective measure we have eliminated poverty.

http://www.rssronaldreagan.blogspot.com/ RSS Ronald Reagan

If the World Bank thing doesn’t work out, perhaps I could interest Mr. Miller in running for President of the U.S.?